It’s been a crazy busy week, one in a long line of a few actually. So one evening after work my friend H and I headed out into the countryside in search of a little magic. We had talked of bluebells for some weeks and H new exactly where to find them. There was a moment when we were both about to duck out, it was blowing a gale and a 99% chance of a downpour at any second but we persevered, and we were lucky to catch the sun for a few minutes on what was otherwise a miserable afternoon. So, here is our visit to the enchanted forest, a 20 minute walk helped lend a lot of perspective. Also on the way home, when it started to rain again I spied a whole and complete double rainbow, the best i’ve ever seen. (No photo sadly, as I was driving on the motorway!) Sometimes we just need to slow the pace, catch our breath and be reminded of the simple beauty life holds.

I’ve recently returned from a small Winter holiday with my Mum, spent right here in the UK. This small yet perfectly formed trip to the South East Coast of England was one of the most relaxing and rejuvenating holidays I’ve had in a long while and featured many of my favourite activities, (In no particular order) eating, wine drinking, sleeping, day dreaming, antiquing, art gallery visiting, star gazing and walking.

Here follows a few little pictures of the places we visited……..

We stayed in a cozy little house in the Ancient Town of Rye – a hilltop town, overlooking the bay. Rye is full of independently run shops and tea rooms and, refreshingly there isn’t a corporate coffee house in sight. There are also plenty of antique shops and quirky 2nd hand stores to admire. We wiled away a few happy hours exploring Rye and it’s cobbled streets.

For a mere £2 you can climb your way to the top of St Mary’s church tower. Built at the top of the hill this offers panoramic views of the town, though it’s not a climb for the faint hearted, particularly on a windy day. Our out of season visit meant that there were few tourists (other than ourselves) to contend with so we were welcomed with open arms into what is a relatively sleepy town during Winter months.

The landscape is quite different to here in the midlands, we were struck by a lack of hills and how the sky appears larger due to the flat, almost barren marshland. Romney marshes are home to many rare wildlife species and there is plenty to explore……Wellies are required.

This little town, of 1066 fame is home to England’s largest beach launched fishing fleet, so this is certainly where the best seafood is to be found. Cockles and whelks abound and we managed to pick up two Dover sole at £6 each, a bargain! Hastings is also home to the Jerwood gallery, an amazing space quickly declared one of the best galleries we have visited in the UK for a long time

A sandy beach with grassy dunes was a welcome change after trudging over shingle for most of our trip, although this was the only place we felt would be better visited in season as it had been hit hard by storms, on our arrival a dumper truck was in the process of removing mountains of sand from the car park and returning it to the beach. Many holiday homes had lost roofs and windows. The blue sky meant we could see all the way back over to Rye bay where we had walked the previous day.

We found these delightful little beach huts as we drove along the coast, to cute not to stop and photograph. These we found on our way to a particularly magnificent part of the south east coastline, one so special that deserves it’s very own blog post…..to be continued……

What’s your favourite place to visit when you need to relax and unwind?

I’ve spent much of the last week exploring the coastline of East Sussex with my Mother, the beach is a beautiful place to be at this time of year and we’ve enjoyed a few bracing walks across shingle beaches foraging for beach treasure followed by cozy cups of tea in a little house by the sea. We’ve also enjoyed a few seafood dinners. It’s been amazing to get away from it all and breathe some sea air. Best of all, the beaches are practically deserted at this time of year, you can walk for some miles without meeting a single sole.

I’m planning to share more of our seaside adventures but for now I just wanted to share a few snaps from a few of our walks along the beach and suggest if you are at a loose end one weekend soon I highly recommend wrapping up warm and heading out to the coast for some fresh air and beachcombing.

Ok, so not an average day/weekend in my life but I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to share a few photos from a weekend away in Brighton recently with C, my boyfriend. Brighton had been on my ‘to visit again” list for a while, so the prospect of a weekend away was very exciting

It didn’t disappoint

Admittedly I had imagined it to be similar to London: busy and expensive combined with lots of smelly people on the tube.

All of this I can cope with in short bursts and whilst I enjoy visiting London I’m always happy to leave it behind and get back to Leicestershire, green fields and sheep (and the Narborough Rd)

Brighton was a different story, Brighton is the sort of place I’d like to live

Notable places we visited:

Brighton Pier

C and I can never resist the lure of a 2p machine

Choccywoccydoodah – a pastry chef’s pilgramage. We found this elegant pair in the window, made entirely of chocolate. I have to say we found the inside of the shop a little disappointing